(Clockwise from top) The Journal’s inaugural edition, in October 1989; a look at the new Involvement and Outreach webpage; and the last print version of the Journal, in December.

The Journal, a monthly BPA publication, has been used to share the latest public-involvement opportunities with customers for over 20 years. Starting in January, the publication moves online, becoming a webpage that will deliver customers more real-time updates on BPA’s public processes.

“The Journal is an important way we consolidated public-involvement notices for our customers,” said Mike Hansen, manager of Media Relations and Policy Writing. “This source was created to streamline the incredibly large number of letters and announcements that were mailed out every year.”

When the Journal was established 27 years ago, it was printed in black and white and mailed out. If customers and stakeholders had questions about the regional issues and activities reported in the Journal, they had to mail their questions back to BPA via what we dub today as snail mail.

Today the Journal is sent to nearly 3,000 people across the region and country by either mail or email. But this monthly communication process had started to reveal its limitations in a faster-moving business environment.

“We are encountering public processes that are opening and closing before we can get them into the Journal,” said Heidi Helwig, manager of the Public and Community Engagement group. “This move to an online platform will allow us to notify customers of new projects and updates as soon as we have the information available.”

Producing the Journal every month took a lot of time to put together by staff across Communications and Mail and Media Services. Staff on the public and community engagement team gathered updates and new public involvement notices from their array of projects across the region. Writing staff edited those notices and condensed news articles from BPA’s external website, the newsroom at bpa.gov. Graphics laid out the Journal before it was sent to Mail and Media Services for printing and mailing. All of this for a publication that often referred readers to more information online.

“The printing and mailing expenses for the Journal cost BPA about $9,000 a year,” said technician Nate Williams of the workplaces services group in Mail and Media Services. “The Journal takes time to produce every month so the move will give us more time to complete other projects.”

The new webpage will not only free up labor around the agency but allow BPA to feature full-length articles and other media content that could not be shared via a print edition. The webpage will feature the same elements of the Journal – public-involvement notices, articles and an event calendar – helping to channel the information to one readily updated, easy-to-use location for customers and other interested parties. Recipients of the Journal who were interested in being notified about new additions to the webpage were able to sign up for monthly email reminders.

“Now that we are moving into new platforms for sharing information, it makes sense to move the Journal to a webpage after 27 years,” Hansen said. “It’s a move that will benefit everyone.”